[TheForge] heads up

[C&J Allcorn]

I am on TheForge mailing list, the following may be applicable to you.
JA

Ok folks, heads up, this is NOT  a joke (wish it were)
we were hit by the RESTORE virus yesterday
there is a chance it harvested our email list and will send you an 
email, supposedly from us, and want you to click on a link.
I mostly send jokes and links to FLIXXY videos, etc.  they are from a 
reputable source.
Bottom line, when in DOUBT...DELETE...DON'T CLICK!!!

We rec'd an email from something with a link starting as "pf_" something 
and Cindy clicked on it thinking it was from a particular showroom that 
she might be interested in
WRONG!
it wasn't.

It was a RECOVER virus.

What it does (and there are several like it), it encripts much (not all) 
of the data on your hard disk and any attached drives (thumb or USB 
drives) including backup hard drives.  It does this by giving these 
files an additional file extension.  So something like 
"Your_letter.docx" becomes "Your_letter.docx.alvbrix" or something similar.

Bottom line, your word program won't open the file because it doesn't 
know the format.  It also affects Excel, Word, PDF and photos, and who 
knows what else.

Then the program you downloaded inadvertently sends you a message to 
click on a certain link, paste in a series of codes and send them a $$$ 
fee and supposedly they will UNLOCK and allow you to RECOVER your files.

Whether or not this works is questionable.  So far we have had to delete 
some 2000+ files as unusable.  The good news is that AVG stopped and 
quarantined the virus, alas not before much havoc...

If you get an email with our name on it, hover your mouse over the name 
and see if it tells you the email address attached.  If it does not 
correspond to our email, beware. (your email client may work differently)

Apologies in advance
James and Cindy

-- 
"If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and hustle."
Phillip Simmons, 1912-2009.